THE BOTTOM LINE: Begone, dull scruple! Sneak out of school and and enjoy this exuberant romantic romp.

We see a landscape of the Chianti region of Tuscany, as painted by the local governor, Leonato (Richard Briers). Then the camera pans to the real thing: a paradise of green and brown hills -- life outshining art -- on which his handsome family idles. The rest of this film of Much Ado About Nothing has the same seductive impact as the first shot does. It brings sunny vitality to an old canvas.